Training Log Archive: Dooby

Not much happened today, last bit of sunbathing by the lake and one last swim before it was time to head to Geneva and a flight home to Ireland.

I enjoyed my time in France. Training starts now for WOC2012.

Spectated at the relays. Would have liked to have had a chance to get a run but didn't get selected. So that's something to remedy for next year. After experiencing the arena and its atmosphere it's given me motivation to be in a position to get selected next year.

Lads ran well in tough terrain and in the heat. Magic needs to work on his sprinting though!

Roll on the banquet and the traditional end to WOC.

From the apartment to Greasy s/Aix where I hit the lap button to start the climb. Starting to figure out how to ride the bike since i'm used to my own one.

Greasy s/Aix - Le Revard (top)

Set off with Roar and we had a nice pace on the steep first few km to Trevignin. Roar was a bit cycling a bit slower than I would have done on my own but at least energy was being saved for later in the day. Was hot cycling. Even though there was a quick warm shower for a minute or 2.

Pace was steady and then we hit the main road up from Aix. The gradient was not as steep and the km posts went passed regularly. Felt blood sugar getting low so managed to extract a 2nd gel and some glucose tablets from my bumbag while cycling. This gave Roar an opportunity to catch up, had dropped a few metres back. Just in time too for the water stop at the fountain by the side of the road. Water was cold and refreshing so we gladly filled our bottles. In the last km before the water another cyclist went passed but wasn't going too much faster. He was leaving the water stop as we arrived.

Myself and Road headed off up the hill again, 7km to the top. Between the 7 and 6km posts I upped my pace slightly and dropped Roar. I then decided that I might as well see what the bike could do. Kept a nice pace going and in the distance I noticed I was catching the cyclist who'd passed us earlier. I steadily gained on him until I was around 20m back, the gap then stayed the same and after a while it began to increase, I was losing ground! I kept on pushing and then the gradient decreased for the last km to the col. I dropped gears and really upped the pace and the gap decreased at a much faster rate. I caught the cyclist just before the col. Problem was that he headed on towards Feclaz but I continued to the top. Would have made the last bit more interesting if he'd the balls to climb more!

After that I just kept a steady pace to the top where i'd a 5 mintues wait for Roar to arrive.

Would have been interesting to have pushed harder for longer. The bit I did increase the tempo for didn't do too much damage to me. My first french climb and a nice one at that. Must check what sort of category it was, maybe a 2?

Downhill from La Revard to La Feclaz. Had to go through the village to get to the team parking area due to the one-way system. Bumped into Focus in his carat the junction of the relief road with the main road. He drove in front of us up the hill then blowing his horn, pretending it was The Tour. Bif of an enjoyable end to the ascent. Also said hello to Kev who must have got a shock as we rode past.

La Feclaz - Aix le Bains

Elevation gain was 141m but the elevation loss was 1215m. We dropped a lot in a short space of time. The max speed was 64.1kph. Enjoyable ride but didn't push too hard, didn't want to go straight on at an unfamiliar bend. Could feel the heat increase as we descended too. The hill at the start wasn't as bad as I expected, then it was downhill to the end.

Les quatres chemins
Relay Model

Found it rough in places, had a hard fall early on and slit my left wrist with a bit of a scratch.

Completely missed the 1st control, missed the path before the control somehow and continued on, not smart. Other than that I wasn't going too fast so the controls appeared where the should have. Thought the pit at 114, the last control I got was very small. And 102 was further than I thought it was going to be from the track.

Time/distance includes warm-up and warm-down.

Le Pleurachat

Got to run M21E middle distance for free since it was the same day as the final I didn't qualify for.
What a DISASTER.

Got 1 fine and also 2 but things went very bad for 3 and 4. Despite 3 being close to a track and me attacking from a track I attacked from the wrong bend. 4 I also overshot but wasn't really sure what was going on there. 5 I was too far right of, but didn't really understand the map. 6-8 were ok but wasn't moving too fast. 9 there was a big rocky hole unmapped next to the control.

Made a mess of 10 too, despite attacking from a track close to the control. Relocated a good bit beyond it at another control. Had to go back and lost a nice bit of time. Happy with how I got 11 though, and then got to the end.

Not sure how I manage to make such a balls of some controls and then get others fine.

Garmin said I ran 6.73km and gained 62m. I did take some circuitous routes.

Went to the lake and got some sun, also swam. Can't remember what else I did.

La Grande Teppe

Entered on the day, and paid €18 for my troubles. Nice course with the open area from Long Qualifier included so back to familiar terrain there. My ankle did not like the open, too many invisible holes.

1st control wasn't very good, missed the ride I wanted and kinda got lucky in the end. The rest of the course went fine, no major time lost. Did overshoot 8 on the contouring leg. Then getting up the other side of the valley from 8 was very hard, very slippy/mucky after torrential rain earlier. Eventually got up and continued on.

Roar started after me, only time I saw him was at the finish when he came in soon after me. He claims to have seen me on numerous occasions and even passed within a metre of me!

Garmin said I ran 7.53km and climbed 198m.